After the Indian cricket team won the cricket world cup 2011, there have been, predictably, politicians and businessman outdoing each other in doling out obscene amounts of cash, cars and assorted knick knacks. There has also been, predictably, indignation from the people and media who claim that the cricketers are rich anyway, so why go all crazy with the gifts ? Government distributing taxpayer money to ridiculously rich cricketers particularly rankles them.

I wonder how many people have thought about all the positive economic fallout of India’s historic win ? I’m pretty sure that the seminal and final bought record liquor sales to the state exchequer. Surely this figure runs into hundreds of crores of rupees – easily covering the one crore some state governments have promised to players. The world cup victory will no doubt translate into more sales of cricketing merchandise and sporting gear and increased enrollment in summer cricket camps. Increased ad-spend on all TV networks. Not to forget the huge amounts of money that companies and people have spent during the six week long world cup itself. All, no doubt significant benefits to the economy.

So, to all the people, especially those in the media who constantly bitch about cricketers being over-awarded, shut the fuck up.